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SECOND EDITION. 



"1 ne Oldest House in the 
United States'' 



St. Augustine, Fla. 



An examination of the St. Augustine 
Historical Society's claim that its house 
on St. Francis Street was built in the 
year 1 565 by the Franciscan Monks 



Bv CHARLES B. REYNOLDS 




NEW YORK 

THE FOSTER & REYNOLDS COMPANY 

1921 



r3\^ 



SECOND EDITION. 

The Examination was first published in May 
of this year. This second printing contains 
new material which will be of interest even to 
those who saw the first edition. 

On the back cover is given an extract from 
the Armistice Day address of Dr. Andrew 
Anderson, as printed in the Evening Record. 
There speaks the true St. Augustine. When 
the city thus asserts its dignity and self-respecl 
and proclaims the truth through the lips of one 
whose words not even the Historical Society 
may gainsay, how contemptible, how inde- 
fensible are the frauds and the fakers seen to be. 






^'The Oldest House in the United States'' 



THE PURPOSE OF THE INQUIRY. 

St. Augustine is famed as the oldest town in the United States. 
Because of its age one looks for old things. The visiting tourist expects 
lo find relics of the distant past, material tokens of the city's romantic 
history. But except for the Fort, the Gateway and the narrow streets, 
there are no such reminders here. In the absence of genuine antiquities, 
mercenary ingenuity has invented spurious ones. The stranger knowing 
no better accepts the false for the true. 

Under these circumstances an extensive and flourishing system of 
faking has been developed to coax the coin from the winter tourist. 
As a rule, the inventors and promoters of the fakes are not natives nor 
old-time residents. Not being of St. Augustine stock, they have no pride 
in the town to make them jealous of its good name. They are not in the 
least troubled that their dishonest practices give the town notoriety as a 
city of fakes. 

The St= Augustine Historical Society, which exploits the most im- 
pudent of the several oldest house fakes, is of this class. Its activities 
are directed by persons who are not citizens of the town and show no 
sense of responsibility for maintaining the town's good repute. So that 
they get the profit, they apparently care nothing for the disgrace their 
enterprise brings on the city. 

They tell their revenue-producing lies with such assurance and 
repetition that some of the home folks themselves after a time accept 
the frauds, and not only grant the fakers immunity, but when the fakes 
are attacked, rally to the defense of them and cry out that the business 
interests of the town are in jeopardy. 

This was just what happened last winter when I published an article 
on the "Fakes of St. Augustine," and at the^next meeting of the Board 
of Trade excited members (including the City Manager) took the floor 
to denounce the "attack," and at a meeting of the Historical Society 
the wail went up that "every business interest of St. Augustine had 
been damaged." The fakes, it will be noted, are "business interests." 

In the spring of 1920, visiting St. Augustine after an absence of 
some years, I found flourishing there three varieties of fakes for tourists. 
In the Florida Standard Guide and in an article in Mr. Foster's Travel 
Magazine (January, 1921) I described what I had seen and heard — 
the Ponce de Leon mission cross fake, the string of lies told by the 
Society's guide who conducted my party through the Fort, and two of 
the oldest house fakes, in particular that of the Historical Society on 
St. Francis street. Events in the city's history were recalled and his- 



torical authorities were cited to demonstrate that the Ponce de Leon 
mission and the oldest house were fictions ; and the suggestion was made 
that the mercenary deceptions ought to be suppressed for the sake of the 
city's good name. 

The action which followed on the part of the Historical Society 
was reported in the St. Augustine Evening Record of March 9: 

"At a regular meeting of the St. Augustine Historical Society and 
Institute of Science, held in the reading rooms of the Hotel Ponce de 
Leon Tuesday evening, Chauncey M. Depew, of New York, presi- 
dent of the organization, presided, and . . . put the question, unani- 
mously carried, placing the Society on record as not disposed to 
dignify the alleged slanderous articles of C. B. Reynolds with a reply, 
but to again assert to the world the belief of the St. Augustine His- 
torical Society members that the dates and data it sets forth are right 
and correct, cannot be disproved, and are as near the facts as true lovers 
of history can establish from meagre historical records and priceless 
traditions handed down from father to son." 

The Record of April 12th published a letter in which I said: 
"I assume that we are all sincerely desirous of establishing the truth 
about the Historical Society's house on St. Francis street and about the 
Ponce de Leon coquina cross. As one step toward that end I suggest 
that a committee of investigation be selected, say of five members, 
three to be named by the Historical Society and the Board of Trade 
and two by me. My only stipulation is that no individual who is per- 
sonally making money out of the Society's activities shall have place 
on the committee. I will very gladly submit my evidences, dravm from 
the contemporaneous records of the time, which I think will show be- 
yond any dispute the falsity of the claims which have been called in 
question by me, namely, that the house on St. Francis street was built 
by Franciscan monks in 1565, and that the coquina cross belonged to 
a religious mission established by Ponce de Leon in 1513. 

"I invite the Historical Society and the Board of Trade to join with 
me in such an endeavor to establish the truth, and I request that the 
findings of the committee may be given publication in the Record." 

And I added that I thought I had "a right to expect the support of 
the citizens of the town, the Board of Trade and all members of the 
Historical Society who are solicitous for the ascertainment of the truth.*' 
The Historical Society and the Board of Trade having declined my 
invitation for an inquiry into the truth of the matters under review, 1 
am now submitting to a wider consideration, with respect to the St. 
Francis street house, what I had intended to lay before the committee. 
In essential respects it is a repetition of what was said in the article on 
"The Fakes of St. Augustine," but with more detail and with citations 
of chapter and verse for the historical sources quoted. 



THE HOUSE ON ST. FRANCIS STREET. 

In the year 1 882 G. F. Acosta, administrator of the estate of Mrs. 
E. A. Acosta, petitioned the Court for an order to sell the lot at the 
corner of Marine and St. Francis streets, for the benefit of the infant 
owners. The petition drawn by his attorney, C. M. Cooper, set up that 
the large lot had its greatest value from its frontage on Marine street, 
that it was vacant except for an old dilapidated house rented to 
negroes, "from which no more had been received than money to pay 
the taxes, and at times not enough to pay the taxes," and that "the 
property as it stands yields no rent." 

The Court having granted the order of sale, the lot was sold; the 
building on it was rehabilitated from its negro occupancy, and was 
enlarged, extended both on the east and on the west, and variously 
altered. Shortly thereafter it was used by the new owner for the business 
of oldest house. Succeeding owners exploited it for the same purpose, 
and in 1918 the business was taken over by the St. Augustine His- 
torical Society and Institute of Science. Because of the prestige given 
by its name the Society has largely developed the business, for the 
popular notion of a historical society leads the average person to accept 
as fact what such a society says on a historical subject. The tens of 
thousands of persons who have visited the Society's house on St. Francis 
street presumably have believed the statement because made by a "his- 
torical society," that the house was built by Franciscan monks in 1565 
and is the oldest house in the United States. 

Like every historical assertion made by a historical society, this one 
is a legitimate subject of examination, to test its accuracy. Such an 
examination if thoroughly and honestly made will disclose whether the 
Society's claim for the antiquity of the house is based on historic truth, 
or whether the building in its character of "oldest house" is the fake 
that I said it was in my article on "The Fakes of St. Augustine." 

It is such an inquiry that I propose to make in the pages which follow. 



THE SOCIETY'S CLAIMS RESPECTING THE HOUSE. 

Concerning its house the St. Augustine Historical Society makes the 
following assertions: 

The sign on the outside of the building at the entrance reads: 

"The Oldest House in the United States under three flags, St. 
Francis Street, St. Augustine, Florida. 

"It is recorded in the archives of the Church that this house was 
occupied by the monks of St. Francis from 1565 to 1590. 

"The chapel they used can still be seen. 

*'In I 590 it came into possession of a deputy of the Spanish Gov- 
ernment and descended in the same family until 1882. The present 
owner has documents proving this." 

In the circular distributed to tourists is said: 

"The Oldest House was erected in the year 1565 by the Franciscan 
monks. There are other old houses, but this is the OLDEST. To 
avoid being disappointed, look for the sign on the door. 'Oldest House 
in the U. S,, property of Historical Society of St. Augustine.' If you 
do not see this sign, you are not at the oldest house, on St. Francis 
street." 

The booklet sold in the house and elsewhere, entitled "Souvenir of 
the Two Oldest Relics in the United States," sets forth: 

"Oldest House in the United States, 
"St. Augustine, Florida. 

"This building is owned by the St. Augustine Historical Society and 
Institute of Science. 

"It was used by the monks who came with Pedro Menendez, the 
founder of St. Augustine, in 1565, and was occupied by them until the 
completion of the larger coquina monastery across the street in 1590. 

"From that time until comparatively recent years it has been the 
home of many noted Spanish, English and American families. 

"After a careful investigation extending over more than a year, of 
records, data and maps, from Spain, the British Museum and the 
archives at Washington, the antiquity of this building was established 
to the satisfaction of the Historical Society and Institute of Science, 
and in order that it might be properly preserved for future generations, 
was purchased by it on November 15, 1918. 

"The walls of the house are of coquina and the lower floors of 
coquina mortar. 

"The largest room on the upper floor was the chapel. At the rear 
of the upper floor is a small room in which the monks slept. [The lec- 

6 



turer adds that the monks contemplated the coffin-shaped ceiling for 
penance. ] 

"In the main living room is a very large open fireplace, which now, 
as in the days of long ago, radiates a cheerful glow on cool days. 

'*The old circular well at the rear of the house, blessed by the Fran- 
ciscan monks, has a never-ending interest for the tourist. There is a 
tradition that he who makes a wish while looking into this well will 
have it granted within a year." 

A sign on the wall in the large upper room tells us : 

"This room was the chapel used by the Franciscan monks from 1565 
to 1 590. The floor and ceiling are original and of cedar." 

There is shown a prie dieu or prayer bench which the souvenir book- 
let explains "was used by the Franciscan monks during their occupancy 
of this house." 

The Society says that traditions attaching to the house justify its 
claims of age for the building. 



SOME HELPFUL DATES. 

1565. Pedro Menendez establishes St. Augustine. 

I 586. Francis Drake burns St. Augustine. 

1665. John Davis burns St. Augustine. 

1 702. Governor Moore burns St. Augustine. 

I 763. Florida is ceded to Great Britain. Spanish leave. English 
occupy St. Augustine. 

1 783. Florida is retroceded to Spain. English leave. Spanish 
occupy St. Augustine. 

1821. Florida ceded to United States. Spanish leave. St. Aug- 
ustine becomes an American town. 



THE RECORDS. 

The year 1565, when the Society says its house was built, was the 
year in which Pedro Menendez de Aviles established Fort St. Augus- 
tine. It was long ago, but the records of the time are available. Con- 
temporary accounts were written by Mendoza ( 1 ) , who was Menendez's 
chaplain, and hy Meras(2), brother-in-law of Menendez and official 
chronicler of the enterprise. Menendez (3) himself wrote long letters 
to the King and to others. Barrientos(4), who was a friend of Men- 
endez's, wrote a history based on Menendez's own official report to the 
King. Barcia(5) in a later work drew his material from original 
sources. The "Unwritten History" compiled by Miss A. M. Brooks (6) 
contributes to our information. In these several records may be found 
material to determine the points at issue. 

(i) Relacion hecha per el Capellan de Armada Francisco Lopez 
de Mendoza, del viaje que hizo el Adelantado Pedro Menendez de 
Aviles a la Florida. 

(2) Memorial que hizo el Doctor Gonzalo Solis de Meras de todas 
las jornadas y sucesos del Adelantado Pedro Menendez de Aviles, 
su cufiado, y de la Conquista de la Florida y Justicia que hizo en 
Juan Ribao y otros franceses. 

(3) Cartas de Pedro Menendez de Aviles. 

The three foregoing are reprinted in Eugenio Rudiaz y Caravia's 
"I. a Florida, su conquista y colonizacion por Pedro Menendez de 
Aviles," Madrid, 1893. The references to the several works are to 
the pages of the Rudiaz volumes in which they are printed. 

(4) Vida y hechos de Pero Menendez de Auiles. . . Compuesta por 
el maestro barrientos, Catredatico de salamanca, 1568. In Dos An- 
tiquas Relaciones de la Florida publicalas por primera vez por Genaro 
Garcia, Mexico, 1902. 

(5) Ensayo Cronologico para la Historia General de la Florida, 
por Don Gabriel de Cardenas z Cano [Barcia], Madrid, 1723. 

(6) The Unwritten History of St. Augustine, copied from the 
Spanish Archives in Seville, Spain, by Miss A. M. Brooks, and trans- 
lated by Mrs. Annie Averette, St. Augustine. 

How the St. Augustine Historical Society esteemed the work of 
Miss Brooks was told by President De Witt Webb in his address 
before the Society, March 14, 1917: "In alluding to the early members 
of the Society. I should have mentioned as among the most active 
and valuable, the labors of Miss A. M. Brooks. Her book, 'The Un- 
written History of St. Augustine,' is of the greatest value, and all her 
work for the Society ... was devoted to its best interests." (Year 
Book, 1916-1917. page 8.) 

(7) Souvenir of the Two Oldest Relics in the United States: 
Oldest House and Fort Marion, St. Augustine, Fla. Illustrated in 
colors with history. Published under the auspices of the St Augus- 
tine Historical Society and Institute of Science. 1920. This is quoted, 
not for historical data, but for the Society's statements respecting the 
age of the house. The audacious mendacity of the booklet gives it an 
unique place among publications of historical societies. 

8 



EXAMINATION OF THE SOCIETY'S CLAIMS. 

Claim A — That the house was built in 1565 by Franciscan 

Monks. 

Menendez sailed from Cadiz June 29th, 1565, with eleven ships, in 
advance of the rest of the fleet. With him w^ere seven priests, three of 
whom deserted at Porto Rico. (Mendoza, Vol. II, page 437.) He 
proceeded to Florida without waiting for the other squadrons. 

The missionaries who were enlisted in the expedition, including 
eleven Franciscan friars and one lay brother, a friar of the Order of 
Mercy, a priest and eight members of the Order of Jesus, sailed later 
with Pedro Menendez Marquez and Esteban de las Alas. (Meras, 
Vol. I, page 63. Barcia, page 69.) They were delayed by storms 
and many of the ships turned back. 

From St. Augustine Menendez went to Cuba in November, and 
wrote to the King from Matanzas, December 5 : "I found at Havana 
Pedro Menendez Marquez, my cousin, with three ships. The fleet of 
Santo Domingo [that of Las Alas] up to this day has not arrived at 
Havana." (Menendez, Vol. II, page HO.) Las Alas reached 
Havana early in January. (Meras, Vol. I, page 149.) 1 he record 
does not show how many of the Franciscans if any reached Havana 
with Menendez Marquez in December, 1565, or with Las Alas in 
January, 1566. That none came with Marquez is indicated by the 
fact that at the end of December Menendez sent Meras to New Spain 
to bring "some Franciscan friars and Dominicans for the conversion of 
the Indians" — procurase iraer algunos fra^les franciscos p dominicos 
para la conversion de los indios. Meras returned in July, 1566, with- 
out any Franciscans. (Barrientos, peges 83, 111.) 

Further and conclusive evidence is contained in a letter written by 
Menendez from St. Augustine on October 15, 1566, to a Jesuit friend, 
in which he says: "I felt lost on finding that no members of the Re- 
ligious order had arrived. . . I am sure that members of the Religious 
orders could accomplish more in one month teaching the Doctrine than 
military men can accomplish in many years. . . I have sent a few boys 
and soldiers to teach them the Christian Doctrine. . . It has been a great 
mistake that none of your Order nor anp other Religious have come to 
teach them." — Ninguno de l^uestras mercedes ni otros Religiosos.'' 
(Historia de la Compafiia de Jesus en la provincia de Toledo, tomo 2, 
folio 153.) 

From all of which it is manifest that in 1565 there were no Francis- 
cans in St. Augustine either to build the house or to occupy it. The 
Society's assertion that the house was built by Franciscan monks and 
occupied by them in 1565 is thus shown to be untrue, 

9 



CONDITIONS IN 1565 PRECLUDED HOUSE BUILDING. 

Nor is it credible that the house should then have been built by 
others, for conditions at the post in 1565 were such as to preclude the 
work of constructing stone houses. St. Augustine was then a fortified 
camp, governed by the Maestre de Campo, the camp master. From 
the shelter of the camp the soldiers and others ventured at their peril 
because of the hostile Indians. They were in constant fear of the sav- 
ages, short of rations, chronically hungry, mutinous and plotting to leave 
the country. 

On October 15, 1565, Menendez wrote to the King: "From the 
burning of the Fort we suffer very great hunger, and the biscuit that 
was landed here is spoiling and being used up and unless we are speedily 
succored we shall suffer and many will pass out of this world from 
starvation." (Menendez, Vol. II, page 101.) 

In November he went to Cuba for supplies. On December 5 th he 
wrote from Matanzas to the King: "I shall do everything in my 
power to send on provisions for the people there ... for they have 
nothing there to eat. . . Unless they can be succored or unless God 
sustains them, one of two things must happen, either they will perish 
with hunger or break with the Indians on account of taking food from 
them." (Menendez, Vol. II, page 106.) He despatched a ship from 
Havana with provisions and supplies. 

On January 30, 1566, in a letter to the King he reported: "Two 
days ago arrived Captain Diego de Amaya, who sailed . . . with pro- 
visions for the Forts of St. Augustine and San Mateo, and he brought 
me news that he arrived safely at Fort St. Augustine . . . that in the cold 
of winter being ill clothed more than one hundred persons [at the two 
Forts] died, and that they were in very great necessity of food and 
still are." (Menendez, Vol. II, page 144.) 

It is not to be believed that people who were starving, dodging 
Indians and plotting to get away, were over on Anastasia Island, quarry- 
ing coquina, transporting it across the bay and building houses of it. 

While it is not to the purpose to follow the fortunes of St. Augustine 
during the years immediately succeeding, the fact is suggestive that the 
same conditions of hardship continued. In 1 5 70, when Las Alas 
returned to Spain with some of his soldiers to report on the conditions 
then existing in Florida, Geronimo de Sobrado testified that there were 
divided among the three forts 150 soldiers, and in St. Augustine there 
were one married man and his wife. There were fifteen or sixteen 
mares in St. Augustine, and ten or twelve cows. "They cannot maintain 
them because the mosquitoes eat them up and the Indians kill them. 
There are no vegetables. There is fish, but those who go fishing are 
always in danger of being killed by the Indians." Francisco Duarte 
testified as to St. Augustine: "The soldiers are poorly armed. They 

lO 



have used their armpr for shirts, not having anything else to wear. They 
need everything. In San Pedro the soldiers are also naked. In Santa 
Elena the soldiers are in the same condition. Among all the fifty soldiers 
of each fort there are not six shirt ' — no habia seis camisas (Uiiigencias 
hechas en Sevilla con motivo de la venida de Esteban de las Alas, de 
la Florida. Ruidiaz, Vol. II, pp. 572-579). 

Claim B — That the house built in 1565 was built here. 

In 1565 there was no St. Augustine here. A house built in the 
St. Augustine of 1565 would have been built not here, but somewhere 
else, for St. Augustine then occupied a different site, as is shown by 
the records. 

From Cuba where he had gone in 1565, Menendez sailed on Feb- 
ruary 25, 1566, to explore southern Florida. He returned to St. 
Augustine in March and afterwards went to visit San Mateo and Santa 
Elena. In May he returned to St. Augustine. Barrientos (page 115) 
records: "He arrived in St. Augustine on May 18th, his arrival 
causing much joy, for they certainly were much afflicted with hunger 
and worn out by the fighting with the Indians. Entering in council with 
the captains, it was agreed to move the Fort from there to the entrance 
of the inlet, because there the Indians could not do so much damage, 
and they could the better defend themselves against the entrance of enemy 
vessels. . . The following day they went to the inlet and traced the site 
of the Fort, which they began building with great industry . . . with an 
understanding of the haste required in building the Fort. They worked 
with perfect order, fearing the Indians would surprise and assault them. 
In ten days the defense was moderately secure, the artillery in position. 
Up to that time no vessel with the relief had arrived. They were in 
danger of starvation." 

In May of the following year (1567) Menendez returned to Spain. 
Before sailing from St. Augustine he ordered the building and gar- 
risoning of a number of blockhouses. One of these was to be erected at 
Palican on the Matanzas River, 5 leagues south of St. Augustine, an- 
other at Seloy, and another in the old St. Augustine (Sant Agustin el 
biejo) . The houses and people in Seloy, old St. Augustine, Palican 
and Matanzas were to be subject and obedient to the Mayor and Gen- 
eral of the (new) Fort of St. Augustine. (Barrientos, pages 141-2.) 

The site of the first St. Augustine is not known. That it must have 
been at a distance from the new site, which was chosen in 1 5 66, is 
indicated by the fact that it was so far away as, to require its own for- 
tification and garrison. 

Wherever was the location, the record shows that a house built in the 
first "old" St. Augustine (Sant Agustin el biejo) of 1565 could not 
have been built here on the present St. Francis street in the second 
(1566) situation of the settlement. 

II 



Claim C — That the house was built of coquina in 1565. 

Coquina is a building stone quarried on Anastasia Island across the 
bay opposite the town. 

A house in the St. Augustine of 1565 would have been built of 
wood, for coquina was then unknown. The rock was not discovered 
until 1580. 

In the Archives of the Indies (Relaciones de los Sucesos en la 
Florida) it is recorded under the year 1580 that "Martinez Avendaiio, 
being Governor of Florida, wrote to the King: 'I have to inform your 
Majesty that on the Island called Anastasia we have discovered a rock 
or stone of shell formation of which there will be enough to build the 
foundation of the Fort.' " This record Mrs. Annie Averette tells me 
was copied by Miss A. M. Brooks from the original in Seville. 

Among the Brooks transcripts in the Library of Congress is a letter 
written from St. Augustine, December 27, 1583, to the King, by Gov- 
ernor Pedro Menendez Marquez, in which he says: 

"About three years since I went to an Indian town four leagues from 
this, where I found an abundance of stone, near the sea. After I had 
received the royal cedula from Y. M., it occurred to me that it would 
be useful; so afterward I went to see it, with a few persons from here 
who understand something about it. From appearances there is a large 
quantity, but not enough to make a great fortress. It is very soft, but 
withal will be profitable for the foundation, which will be adapted to 
the natural condition of the ground. I will endeavor to have some of it 
brought here, when the negroes are not otherwise employed." 

In the house on St. Francis street, which it says was built of coquina 
in 1565, the Historical Society sells a booklet containing a chrono- 
logical table. One entry in the table reads: "1580 — Coquina discov- 
ered on Anastasia Island." 

It follows that inasmuch as coquina had not then been found, the 
house was not built of coquina in 1565 by Franciscan monks or any 
other builders. 

If the house had been built of wood in 1565, twenty years after- 
ward it would have been burned. 

In 1586, on his way home from the West Indies, Francis Drake 
found a wooden town here. Writes Thomas Cates, who chronicled the 
voyage: "Going a mile up or somewhat more by the River side, we 
might descerne on the other side of the River over against us, a fort, 
which newly had bene built by the Spaniards, and some mile or there 
about, above the fort, was a little town or village without wals, built 
of woodden houses, as this plot here doth plainly shew." The "foote 
of the fort Wall was all massive timber of great trees like mastes." 

12 



(Summane and True Discourse of Sir Francis Drake's West-Indian 
Voyage, 1590, pages 34, 35.) A note on the "plot" says: "The 
fort was called Saint John de Pinos, which afterward we burned." 
They then took "the town of St. Augustine, which being won at our 
departure was burned to the ground." 1 he account in De Bry de- 
scribes the town as built of wooden houses — ligneis aedibus exstructa, 
and says it was entirely destroyed by the English by fire — ab Inglis 
igne injecto plane devastata est. De Bry's Americae, Pars VIII, 
Continens Descriptionem Trium Itinerum. . . Francisci Draken, Frank- 
fort, 1599. Tabula IX.) 

Barcia records that when Drake appeared the Governor retired to 
San Mateo, and that learning that Drake had gone on to Virginia, he 
decided to return. "He went by land with 200 soldiers to the town of 
St. Augustine, which he found reduced to ashes" — que hallo reducida a 
cenigas. "He brought back the inhabitants, sent for more people from 
San Mateo and began to rebuild or to build de novo the town of St. 
Augustine" — p empoco a reedificar, o edificar de nuevo, la Ciudad de 
San Agustin. (Ensayo Cronologico, page 163.) 

Now that the ill-fated wooden town of 1586 has been burned in 
three languages, it is interesting to note that even in that far distant 
time St. Augustine had qualities which endeared it to its inhabitants 
and engaged their pens in its praise. Among the transcripts of Spanish 
manuscripts obtained by Miss Brooks in Seville is a letter written by 
Alonzo Santos Saez, from San Augustin de la Florida, the 1 1 th day 
of July of the year 1586, and addressed to the King, in which he says: 
"I have to communicate sad news to Your Majesty — the arrival of the 
English Corsair, Francis Drake. . . After the enemy had consummated 
their object, they sailed away. We returned from the woods, and to 
our sorrow found nothing but ruin and destruction staring us in the face. 

"This city being comparatively new, having been founded only a few 
years ago, was nevertheless one of the best situated and best popu- 
lated, and comprised beautiful cultivated lands, also a variety of fruit 
trees, the equal of which was not to be found anywhere in the Indies. 
But all has been lost beyond recovery. We the inhabitants of this 
place had taken a special pride in cultivating and beautifying it, expect- 
ing to reap the fruits of our labors. We built houses which, although 
of wood, were very comfortable and quite expensive." 

It is pleasant to recall thus the name of Alonzo Saez, prototype of 
the countless letter writers, who, from the date that it was "compara- 
tively new" through the centuries to this present time when it is old, 
have celebrated the charms of St. Augustine. 

The new town which was built after Drake's raid, was built of 
wood, and wood was the building material employed for many years 

13 



afterward. The accompanying photo reproduction of a section of a 
map of St. Augustine, made in 1593, shows the building construction 
of that date — board sidings and thatched roofs. The General's house, 
the guard house, the church and other wood-and-thatch buildings are 
shown; but there is no hint of the deputy's coquina stone house, nor of 
"the larger coquina monastery across the street," which the Society tells 
us had been completed three years previously. The map was prepared 
for the King. One might think that H. M. would have been gratified 
to see something more substantial than these flimsy fire-traps. 

In I 599 the church and the monastery which was actually here went 
up in smoke, and the Franciscans took refuge in the hospital. On 
February 25, 1600, Fray Bias de Montes wrote from St. Augustine 
to the King: "In other letters I have written to Your Majesty, I have 
given an account of the fire we had on the 1 4th of March of last year, 
1599, in this city. Among other houses burned with the church was 
ours." (Unwritten History, page 57) Again in 1605 monastery 
and church were burned, the monks this time going to the Hermitage of 
Our Lady of la Soledad, pending the provision of a new home. On 
December 26 of that year Governor Pedro de Ybarra wrote to the 
King: "I have now built another good church and house for these 
good fathers." St. Augustine roofs were still of palmetto, and Gov- 
ernor Ybarra was much w^orried about their inflammable nature and the 
fire peril. In the same letter he wrote: "There is another matter to 
which I give much of my attention, and that is to be able to make 
lumber shingles with which to cover the roofs of the houses." (Manu- 
script in Library of Congress. The Lowery Collection, page 114.) 

Thus history, as recorded in books, letters and maps of the time, 
shows the absurdity of the Society's assertions about the antiquity of 
its house. Perhaps the Society holds with Henry Ford that "History is 
bunk." More likely it never suspected that such records were available 
to demonstrate the supreme silliness of its pretensions. At the meeting 
of the Board of Trade last winter following the publication of my article 
on the "Fakes of St. Augustine," the Vice-President of the Society 
made the naive suggestion: "There has never been written a compre- 
hensive history of Florida, and many of the claims made by all his- 
torians are based upon traditions." 

Of the rich store of historical material relating to Florida and St. 
Augustine, the St. Augustine Historical Society appears blissfully 
ignorant. To supply the imagined deficiency it dispenses its own home- 
brew. Raw stuff. But the President says he likes it. 



14 







This is a photo reproduction (reduced) of a section of a map sent to 
the King in 1 593 — "Mapa del Pueblo, Fuerte y Cario de San Agustin 
de la Florida y del Pueblo y Caiio de S'an Sebastian." The section here 
given covers the portion of the town just south of the Fort, which is 
shown on the map as a triangular work surrounded by circular defenses. 
There are shown the Church (Iglesia), the Guard House (Cuerpo de 
Guardia), and the General's House (Cassa de General). The sketch 
was evidently intended to indicate for the King the principal buildings in 
his Florida town. Its significance for us lies in the information it gives 
of the style and material of construction employed at the period. The 
date, 1593, it should be remembered, was twenty-eight years after the 
year 1 565, when the Historical Society says its stone house was built; and 
three years after 1590, when, it says, "the larger coquina monastery 
across the street" had been completed. 



Claim D — That it has documents proving possession of the 
house in one family from 1590 to 1882. 

St. Augustine has again and again been scourged by fire. In 1 662 
the pirate Davis burned the town. In 1 702 Governor Moore ol 
South Carolina after stealing the plate and ornaments of the church 
and driving all the inhabitants into the Fort, laid siege to the castle for 
three months, and then was "obliged to retreat, but not without first 
burning the town." (Report of the Committee of the South Carolina 
Assembly, July 1, 1741.) Barcia's account has the expressive phrase, 
hecha Cinegas la Ciudad — "they made ashes of the city." (Ensayo 
Cronologico, page 320.) 

That the Society's house if built in 1565 should have escaped 
destruction through all these successive conflagrations would have been 
only less remarkable than the preservation of the documents which the 
Society says it has, showing the possession of the house by one Spanish 
family from I 590 to 1882. 

The Archives of St. Augustine have repeatedly been destroyed by 
fire, and those which have escaped destruction do not go back of the 
year 1 702. This was set forth in a deposition by the keeper of the 
Archives, who in 1 763, testified in the land case of John Gordon. 
(The Case of Mr. John Gordon, London, 1772, Exhibit XXII.) 

If under such circumstance the Society has real estate records extend- 
ing back to 1 590, the documents must be counted as unique, and are 
to be classed among the rarest and most interesting of its possessions. 

But has it the documents? Or are these too fakes? I am told that 
people in St. Augustine are asking this in a slightly difl^erent way. They 
say, "If the Historical Society has documents to answer the charges 
brought against it by Mr. Reynolds, why doesn't the Society produce 
the documents and answer the charges?" When one thinks about it, 
that is quite the natural question to ask. 

The Society says its documents show that its house was in possession 
of the Spanish deputy's family from 1590 to 1882. From St. Augus- 
tine's beginning and for a long period the place was small, scantily 
peopled and poverty-stricken. It was essentially nothing more than a 
garrison town, a fortified post, occupied by a transient military popula- 
tion serving its terms of enlistment — here to-day and gone to-mo/row. 
There was constantly recurring talk of abandoning the post. In 1593 
Juan de Posada wrote to the home government advising its discon- 
tinuance. When the church and monastery v/ere burned in 1 599 Fray 
Bias de Montes wrote to the King that the money for the rebuilding 
would be held until it should be decided whether the garrison would 
remain here or be removed to some place more advantageous. So late 
as 1 690 a proposal was submitted to the Spanish Ministers to translate 

l6 



the post to Santa Maria de Galbe (Pensacola), so few were the in- 
habitants here and so hard the conditions of living. That under these 
circumstances a government official's family should have remained here 
and perpetuated its family line for 300 years would have been suffi- 
ciently improbable, even had St. Augustine during all that time con- 
tinued to be a Spanish town. But it did not. On the contrary, there 
were successive changes of population and repeated summary race in- 
terruptions. 

EXEUNT OMNES. 

When Great Britain acquired possession of Florida, it was after 
almost a hundred years of racial enmity and warfare between the Eng- 
lish of South Carolina and Georgia and the Spaniards of St. Augustine ; 
and when the hated British came to occupy St. Augustine in 1 763 the 
Spaniards went away. All went, including descendants of deputies' 
families. Don Melchor Feliu, Governor of San Augustin de la 
Florida, wrote to the Governor of Cuba: *'I have the honor to report 
to you that on the 22nd of January last I sailed from that port with eight 
transports, having on board the rest of the inhabitants of that town, 
which, together with the troops of that garrison, reached the number of 
3, 1 04 persons. The zealous determination of the people of that town, 
so faithful in their desire to live under the dominion of His Majesty, was 
a matter of attention and wonder even to the British themselves. Their 
voluntarily exiling themselves from their native homes, with the sacrifice 
of all their property, firmly established at the same time their devotion to 
our religion and fidelity to H. M.. . . The entire population emigrated, 
leaving behind only three, who (as I informed you in my communi- 
cation of the 7th of last month) had remained behind with my per- 
mission, to attend to the final disposition of some horses that were run- 
ning loose in the neighborhood of the city of San Augustin. (Brooks 
Manuscripts, Library of Congress.) 

Twenty years later, in 1 783, the Spaniards returned and the English 
went away, there remaining only the Minorcans and Greeks and Italians, 
who had come up from New Smyrna during the British occupation. 
Thirty-eight years afterward, in 1821, the Spaniards went and the 
Americans came. Spanish, English, Spanish, American — this is the 
story of change told by the three flags which have floated over the Fort, 
each change of sovereignty and of race bringing an interruption of 
family descent. 

Reading the history of St. Augustine is like reading a Shakespeare 
play; on every other page the scene closes or the act ends with Exeunt 
omnes. 



17 



Claim E — That traditions justify its assertions about the age 

of the house. 

The Society has recently advanced a blanket claim that traditions 
justify its several assertions respecting the age of the house. In connec- 
tion with the claim of documents showing the long possession of the 
house in the same family, it is pertinent to consider these traditions of 
which the Society now makes so much. 

When I pointed out that the 1565 coquina house building monk story 
had no foundation in history, the Society rejoined that the tale was 
supported by traditions attaching to the house 

At the Society meeting of March 8, President Depew said: "We 
must remember that St. Augustine was founded 350 years ago, and for 
ages had no libraries or newspapers, which means that much of our 
history is based upon tradition handed down from father to son." 

The resolution adopted at the meeting asserted the Society's faith 
that its statements about the house wers "as near the facts as true lovers 
of history can estabhsh from meagre historical records and priceless 
traditions handed down from father to son" (Evening Record,^ 
March 9.) 

But the handing down of traditions from father to son through St. 
Augustine's three centuries of change would have been impossible, be- 
cause, as has just been shown, there was no continued succession of 
fathers and sons from whom, to whom, by whom and through whom 
the handing down couM have been done. The Society's traditions have 
an air of extemporaneousress, not to say freshness. They recall a sign 
in a grocery window: 'Tresh eggs laid to order. Leave your order." 
The traditions appear to have been laid to order. But the quality of 
freshness is of variable virtue; we demand it in eggs, but look askance 
at it in traditions. Whether old or new does not matter. Tradition is 
superfluous. 

The Society's recourse to traditions to bolster up its case is wholly 
unnecessary. It sa3's it has documents proving possession of the house 
in the same family from 1590 to 1882. A shred of such documentary 
evidence would be worth all the traditions the glib-tongued lecturers 
could spiel. If it has the documents, then, why doesn't it produce them ? 

The old residents of St. Augustine had never heard of any such 
traditions until the fakers came to town. Said Dr. Andrew Anderson 
in his Armistice Day address last November: "To my knowledge 
there never was a slave sold in it [the Plaza Market]. In those days 
before the Civil War I never heard of ihe existence of a Ponce de Leon 
sprmg, nor of a burning spring, nor of an oldest house, nor of a slave 
market, nor of a Huguenot Cemetery." 

l8 



THE HOUSE WAS NOT HERE IN 1778. 

Our examination of the historical records has shown us that in 1565, 
when the Society claims its house was built by Franciscan monks, there 
were here no monks, no known coquina, no St. Augustine, 

We now come to later and documentary evidence bearing on the 
inquiry. First and most important is the British Crown grant of the lot 
on which the house stands. 

The Treaty of Paris in 1 763, by which Great Britain acquired 
Florida, provided that the Spanish lands which should be abandoned, 
or the owners of which should not take the oath of allegiance, should 
become the property of the British Sovereign. By the operation of 
this rule, the St. Francis street lot then passed into the possession 
of King George III. Here was a certain break in title from any 
original grantee, whether the Society's Spanish deputy of 1 590 or 
another. From King George III. the lot was transferred to Joseph 
Peavett by Crown grant in 1 778. The instrument of the grant was for 
a long time in the possession of the late Miss Nica Llambias, who lived 
on St. Francis street. Mrs. Averette's statement of the terms of the 
grant was printed in my article on "The Fakes of St. Augustine," as 
follows : 

"It was originally part of a grant given by George III. to Joseph 
Peavett, and is called in the grant *Town lot No. 9, Society Quarter.' 
The grant is recorded in the Register's office in England, Book D, 
Fol. 2, pages 46 and 47, May 1st, 1 779, and is entered in the Audit- 
or's office Book A, page 2, Aug. 12th, 1781. 

"The grant provides that the grantee must pay yearly and every year 
one peppercorn if demanded ; that he must build within three years next 
after the date, July 16, 1 778, one good and sufficient tenantable house 
with brick chimney at least, and of the dimensions of 24 feet in length 
in front and at least 1 6 feet in breadth or depth. If the lot was not 
built on in that time, the grantee and his heirs must pay to the Crown 
£1 yearly and every year until the house was completely finished. If 
not finished in ten years, the lot granted must revert to the Crown. The 
instrument was given under the Great Seal of East Florida by Gov. 
Patrick Tonyn, July 16th, 1778." Mrs. Averette has written me that 
she took these details from the original document, when Miss Llambias 
had it. W. W. Dewhurst, Esq., of St. Augustine, who has seen the 
original grant itself, informs me that the details as printed are correct — 
"the grant in terms requires that the grantee must build within three 
years next after July 16th, 1778, one good and sufficient tenantable 
house." And he adds that the plot accompanying the grant "shows a 
large vacant lot fronting on St. Francis street and bounded east by an 
open space facing the water." 

The fact that the plot of the grant shows a vacant lot, and the stipu- 

19 



lation in the grant that a house must be built on the lot to perfect the 
title, would seem to indicate that the Society's house built by the Fran- 
ciscan monks in 1565 and the home of many Spanish and English 
families was not standing here in I 778. 

The history of the original document of the Peavett grant is interest- 
ing. It passed to Geronimo Alvarez when he acquired the lot, and in 
later years was one of the treasured possessions of Miss Nica Llambias, 
a niece of Antonio Alvarez. (Incidentally, Mrs. Averette has told me 
that Miss Llambias was much exercised over the misrepresentations 
made about the age of her uncle's house, and often so expressed herself 
to Mrs. Averette.) 

In 1910, when the subject of St. Augustine's oldest houses was 
under discussion, Mrs. Averette published the foregoing terms of the 
grant in the St. Augustine Evening Record, and said that shortly before 
that time the document had been stolen from Miss Llambias. Again 
ii« 1918, when the Society was considering the purchase of the oldest 
house business, Mrs. Averette sent to the Society the same statement 
of the terms of the Peavett grant, to show that as to age the house 
was not what was claimed for it. Mr. Dewhurst tells me that since that 
time the original document itself, bearing the Great Seal of the Province 
of East Florida, has been sent to the Society, having been mailed to it 
anonymously. Unless then the Society has made some disposition of 
the paper, it has long had and now has in its own possession un- 
answerable documentary evidence that its house was not built by Fran- 
ciscan monks in 1565. 

WHEN WAS THE HOUSE BUILT? 

This examination of the historical and documentary evidence in the 
case having shown that the claims of the St. Augustine Historical 
Society are fictitious, I am not called on to determine actually when 
the house was built. Such records as are available will give the ap- 
proximate date. 

During the British occupation, in the year 1778, as we have seen, 
the vacant lot was acquired by Joseph Peavett. It afterward passed 
lo John Hudson, for the Spanish archives received by the United 
States at the cession in 1 82 1 show that when the abandoned property 
of the English was sold by the Spanish Government in 1 783 this lot 
was sold as the property of John Hudson and was bought by Geronimo 
Alvarez, who was of a Greek family which had come to St. Augustine 
from New Smyrna in British times. Mr. Alvarez remained in St. 
Augustine after the cession to the United Slates in 1821, and con- 
tinued to hold the property. 

Mr. Dewhurst teMs me that in 1831 the tax assessor valued the small 
lot at the corner of, Charlotte and St. Francis streets at $1,800; the 

20 



small lot between that one and the Alvarez lot at $400, and this large 
Alvarez lot at $300, a value which would indicate either that there was 
no house on it, or that any house must have been a very poor one. The 
original appraisal signed by Antonio Alvarez and Andrew Anderson 
is in the office of the St. Johns County Abstract Company. 

Some time prior to 1 834, the stone of the old powder magazine south 
of where the Flagler Hospital is now was sold by the War Depart- 
ment. A purchaser of building material at this sale was either Geron- 
imo Alvarez or his son Antonio. The fair assumption is, and I am 
told that the current belief among the old residents of St. Augustine in 
the 1 880's was, that this stone was used by Mr. Alvarez to build his 
St. Francis street house. While the data here afforded do not fix the 
date precisely, they do lead to the conclusion that the house was built 
between 1831 and 1834. In 1839 Geronimo Alvarez deeded the 
property to his son Antonio, from whom it descended to his grand- 
daughter, Mrs. Acosta, by whose administrator it was sold in 1 882 to 
William Duke. 

A STRAIN OF PURE CASTILIAN BLOOD. 

This brings us to the close of the term of possession from 1 590 to 
1 882, during which the Society says its documents show that the house 
descended from the Spanish deputy "in the same family" As we have 
just seen, among the owners within that term were George III, Joseph 
Peavett, John Hudson, Geronimo Alvarez, Antonio Alvarez and his 
grand-daughter Mrs. E. A. Acosta. 

The Society says that these owners were all "in the same family" of 
the Spanish deputy. This would mean that the German George III 
and the English Joseph Peavett and John Hudson must have been 
descendants of the Spanish deputy of 1590; and the Greek Geronimo 
Alvarez and his descendants to 1 882 must have descended from the 
Spanish deputy, the German George III, the English Joseph Peavett 
and the English John Hudson. The "Oldest" was some melting pot. 

However absurd this variegated lineage of the one family possession 
fake, it is no more absurd than the oldest house fake as a whole. And 
that is no more absurd than that St. Augustine should stand for the 
thing, or that last winter when I had denounced the sundry Oldest House 
fakes, the Fountain of Youth fake, the Ponce de Leon Mission fake, 
the S^ave Market fake and the Huguenot Cemetery fake, an indignant 
member of the Board of Trade should have written to me: **I do feel, 
as do scores of others here, that you have been unfair to every business 
interest in St. Augustine by your attacks upon our greatest asset — our 
history and cherished traditions." 



21 



WHEN THE HOUSE BECAME "THE OLDEST." 

At the sale by order of the court in 1882, the property was bought 
by William Duke, who afterwards conveyed it to the wife of 
Charles P. Carver. Dr. Carver enlarged the building and added the 
tower room, put in the colored glass windows from the old Presbyterian 
Church, decorated the exterior with sea shells of a form venerated by 
some savage tribes, bet up in the yard the plaster casts from the Howard 
place, gave out that the house was the oldest in the United States, 
exacted from tourists an admission fee to inspect it as such, and 
thus by his ingenuity and showman's enterprise converted what not long 
before had been an unprofitable negro tenement into an easy money 
producer. It is said that he paid off the mortgage with the fake "oldest 
house" proceeds. 

From Dr. Carver the house passed into the possession of J. W. 
Henderson, who continued the business of oldest house. The Hender- 
sons dug the well in the yard whidh the Society shows as a wishing well 
"blessed by the Franciscan Monks." Then George Reddington ran 
the place. In 1 9 I 8 he sold the business to the St. Augustine Historical 
Society and Institute of Science. 



THE SOCIETY AND THE HOUSE. 

Prior to this, during the life of Dr. De Witt Webb, founder of the 
Society and its president until his death, it was at one time proposed 
that the Society should take over the house and conduct it as the oldest 
house. He spurned the proposition as a fraud of which the Society 
could not be guilty. What was written in the article on the "Fakes of 
St. Augustine" may be repeated here: "The St. Augustine Historical 
Society was organized in 1884, chiefly by the efforts of Dr. De Witt 
Webb, who until his death was its president and guiding spirit. His 
portrait occupies a prominent place in the Society's house. If the Society 
were minded to do Dr. Webb's memory justice, it might well post a 
notice in connection with the portrait, setting forth the fact that when 
fire had destroyed the Society's former home and it was proposed to take 
the St. Francis street house and continue its exploitation as the oldest 
house (as has been done since his death) he indignantly denounced the 
scheme as involving a deception of the public the Society could not be 
party to." 

Under the new management the business thrived. The prestige of 
the title of "Historical Society" naturally served to strengthen the 
faith of the dupes who heard and believed the 1565 building date and 
the monk story. The St. Augustine Evening Record, which erstwhile 
had printed letters from visitors who thought themselves fooled, now 

22 



I 



gave its own unqualified endorsement of the institution. In announcing 
the Society's acquisition of the business, it said: "There is no question 
about the antiquity of this old building, as the Historical Society fully 
investigated its claims to being the oldest house in the United States 
before considering the purchase. . . Much time and money has been 
expended in attempts to secure reliable data about the date that the old 
house was erected. The British Museum in London has been con- 
sulted and the Federal archives at Washington and elsewhere have been 
probed, the result satisfying the Historical Society that there is no build- 
ing in the United States that antedates this time-worn structure. The old 
building was at one time owned by the Franciscan monks, who came 
here under the Spanish regime." And of the trumpery collection of 
antiques it said: "Under the Historical Society the exhibit of interest- 
ing relics will have an official stamp of accuracy that the public may 
accept as reliable." (St. Augustine Evening Record, Nov. 16, 1918.) 

To this was added the official endorsement by the City Commission 
of the City of St. Augustine. This is displayed in the house, and is 
printed in the circular distributed to tourists. It is Resolution No. 1 1 6, 
"adopted in open session of the Commission this 1 7th day of December, 
A. D. 1918," and reads: "Be It Resolved, That the City Commis- 
sion in meeting assembled do request and recommend to tourists a visit 
to the Old House on St. Francis street." (Society's circular.) 

The Evening Record's endorsement and the City Commission's recom- 
mendation and request to visit the place were given wide currency in 
circulars distributed to tourists. Drivers, chauffeurs, and sightseeing 
cars were paid so much a head for visitors brought to the place. Picture 
cards and books illustrating the house and the "antiques" were by the 
agency of the tourist disseminated throughout the land. The fame of 
the oldest house was spread abroad, and visitors flocked to it. In the 
season from November, 1918, to May, 1919, there were 19,000 
visitors; and in that from November, 1919, to May, 1920, the register 
showed 23,000 "ground through" the house, as the attendants express 
it. The visitors are not confined to winter tourists. In a single mid- 
summer month, July of 1920, the Record reported, "950 people were 
shown through the Oldest House on St. Francis street, which is the 
home of the St. Augustine Historical Society. The visitors' register at 
the Oldest House indicates that they come from far distant sections of 
the country, from Maine to California, and from nearby points, little 
towns throughout Georgia and Florida." (Record, Aug. 10, 1920.) 
To-day the Society's oldest house on St. Francis street is the most suc- 
cessful and best-known fake of St. Augustine. 



23 



SOME OF THE ANTIQUES. 

THE PONCE DE LEON KNOCKER. 

If the gold casket is of lead, the gems in it are likely to be paste. 
The house is stuffed full of antiques, which the Evening Record assures 
us may be accepted as genuine because the Society says they are; but 
our credulity is strained to the breaking point at the very entrance by the 
knocker on the door, of vhich the Society says in its Souvenir Booklet: 
"On the front door of the house is a large solid brass knocker which 
adorned the door of Juan Ponce de Leon's palace at Seville, Spain, 
at the time of his discovery of Florida. It was brought from Spain m 
1 89 1 by a member of the Historical Society. An affidavit proving its 
antiquity may be seen in the house." 

But Ponce had no palace in Seville. Born in Leon in 1 460, as 
soon as he was old enough to handle an arquebus, as was the way with 
all good Spaniards of his time he went into the fight against the Moors, 
and fought until the fall of Granada in 1492. In 1493 he sailed with 
Columbus to America. In 1501 we find him serving under Ovando in 
Hi?paniola. There he married, there his children Luis and Leonora 
and another daughter were born, and he lived on his estates there until 
1509, when he became Governor of the Island of Porto Rico. He 
moved his family to Porto Rico in that year, built a house at Caparra, 
near the present San Juan, and made his home there until 1513, when 
he sailed from San German, Porto Rico, on the voyage which brought 
him to Florida. Thus probably for twenty years, and certainly for 
twelve years, he had lived in the West Indies prior to and up to the 
time when he sailed for Florida. If the knocker ever sounded its alarm 
on a palace door in the Seville night, it was not for Juan Ponce de Leon 
that the sleepy portero opened the door. If the knocker is not of solid 
brass, it ought to be. 

THE LIVING ROOM FIREPLACE. 

A feature of one of the rooms is the fireplace, of which the Society's 
souvenir booklet says: "In the main living room is a very large open 
fireplace, which now as in the days of long ago radiates a cheerful 
glow on cool days." But according to the books, in the days of long 
ago they did not have fireplaces in St. Augustine. 

When the shipwrecked Quaker Jonathan Dickenson reached St. 
Augustine on a bitterly cold day in 1 696, the refugees, he relates, were 
received into the Governor's House, and "seeing how extream cold we 
were, he gave us a cup of Spanish wine and sent us into his Kitchen to 
w^arm ourselves at the Fire." And again, when clothing had been pro- 
vided, "we put on the linen and made all Haste into the Kitchen to 
the Fire." (God's Protecting Providence, page 92.) If the Gov- 



«mor's house in 1696 did not have a fireplace at which the frigid 
refugees could warm themselves in such weather (Dickenson records 
"ice half an Inch thick" the next morning), it is improbable that the 
monks of St. Francis should have enjoyed that solace in their house in 
the hard winter of 1565-6, when Menendez recorded such suffering 
here from the cold. 

The writers in British times recorded that chimneys were introduced 
by the English. 

Wm. Stork (1769) wrote: "The winters are so mild that the 
Spaniards at Augustine had neither chimneys in their houses nor 
glass windows." (Description of East Florida, page 2.) 

Wm. De Brahm, Surveyor-General (1765), wrote: "No house 
has any chimney or fireplace. The Spaniards made use of stone urns, 
filled them with coals left in their kitchens in the afternoon, and set 
them at sunset in their bedrooms to defend themselves against those 
winter seasons which required such care." (Manuscript in Library of 
Harvard University.) 

Romans (1775) wrote: "Till the arrival of the English, neither 
glass windows nor chimneys were known here." (History of Florida, 
page 262.) 

The Hessian surgeon Johann Schoepf here in 1 784 wrote: "The 
houses are built quite after the Spanish fashion, with flat roofs and few 
windows. Here and there the English have houses with more windows, 
especially on the street side. They also built the first chimneys, for 
the Spanish formerly were content with no more than a charcoal fire 
placed under a tapestry hung table." (Reise durch einige der mittlern 
und sijdlichen Vereinigten Nordamerikanischen Staaten nach Ost- 
Florida und den Bahama-Inseln. Morrisbn's translation. Vol. II, 229.) 

The fact that a house has a fireplace to radiate a cheerful glow is 
presumptive evidence that the house was built after the British took 
over St. Augustine. Nevertheless, it may be that its fireplace is one 
thing about which the Historical Society has told the truth. For "the 
days of long ago" is a relative term, particularly with reference to fire- 
places. It may refer back to the monks' house of 1565, or it may not 
go beyond the lives of living men. For when one recalls in after years 
the group about the fireplace in the old home, there needs have been no 
long lapse of time to give the picture place far back in "the days of 
long ago." If we thus measure the phrase, not by historical periods, but 
by individual experience, it may perhaps be conceded that this one claim 
is valid. 

THE monks' PRIE-DIEU OF 1565. 

In the large room upstairs, which the sign on the wall says "was a 
chapel used by the FVanciscan monks from 1 565 to 1 590," is a prie-dieu 

2=; 



"used by the Franciscan monks during their occupancy of this house. ' 
In these things, the Society assures us, "miUions of pious people are 
interested." 

Perhaps it is because the pious are interested, that the Society rep- 
resentatives at the Fort expatiate on Inquisition tortures, racks with skel- 
etons chained to them, and a quicksand well to swallow down the victims. 

THE LAFAYETTE-WASHINGTON TABLE. 

If millions of pious people are interested in the Society's religious 
fakes, millions of patriotic people presumably are interested in its faked 
Stars and Stripes. No squeamishness restrains the Society from 
employing a spurious American flag in one of its fakes. Among the 
antiques is shown a "Masonic table presented to Washington by 
Lafayette." It is decorated with portraits of George and Martha Wash- 
ington and the Marquis. Mrs. Washington once said of the multitudin- 
ous portraits of Washington, that while ihey had a common merit of in 
some certain respect resembling one another, none of them looked like 
George. Of this one she would have said that it didn't even resemble. 
Contemplating the grotesque caricature, one marvels that Lafayette 
should have sent it to his friend and expected the friendship to continue. 

The star feature of the table — a fake within a fake — is the American 
flag of Washington's time here shown as having forty-one stars in the 
field. That would not fool a St. Augustine school boy (though the 
boy, observing this thriving oldest house scheme, might draw mistaken 
conclusions as to the need, of honesty in business). Had Lafayette sent 
a flag to his old commander, it would have had the thirteen stars of the 
banner under which they had fought, or at the most the fifteen stars of 
the flag of 1 795, in which year the Society says the table was presented. 
When was the table actually made? Presumably when there were 
forty-one States in the Union and forty-one stars in the flag, which 
would have been in 1 889, after Montana had been admitted as the 
forty-first State. But this is idle surmise and unprofitab'e conjecture, 
when St. Augustine offers us so many things so much better worth 
finding out than the true date of a St. Francis street fake antique. The 
only word to add is one of wonder that President Depew, who so often 
and so eloquently has orated about his country's flag, should permit 
his Historical Society to exhibit in its house and illustrate in its books 
and sell on its post-cards this vulgar travesty of an American flag on a 
bogus antique. George Washington hated a lie. He would have 
scorned this fraud and resented the association of his name with it. 
The name of Washington, the honor of the flag, religion — nothing is 
respected by these mercenary fakers. 



26 



MASONIC TABLE PReSEMTED lO WASHINGTON BY LAFAYETTE. 




OLDEST HOUSE. 



The illustrations of the 4 1 -starred flag of Washington's time and the 
Prie-dieu of 1565 are copied with their mendacious titles from the 
Society's booklet, "Two Oldest Relics in the United States." 



27 



THE WELL THE MONKS BLESSED. 

One of the "traditions," not "handed down from father to son," but 
handed out to tourists, is the story of the monk-blessed wishing well. A 
reference to the well was contained in a letter which Mr. M. S. Aver- 
ette wrote me under date of March 28, 1921 : "J. W. Henderson, who 
used to own the St. Francis street property, had a son Jay, who was 
one of my companions in St. Augustine. I well remember that Jay 
told me that his mother had had the well dug which now they use as a 
wishing well, and iie told me too how some one Lad fallen into the well 
before it was curbed. 

What Mr. Averette says about the well might be construed as cast- 
ing suspicion on the Society's assertion that it had been "blessed by the 
monks," but as no remote date is claimed for the blessing, and as the 
monks of 1565-1590 are not specified, it might have been that some 
monks visiting St. Augustine after Mrs. Henderson had had the well dug 
bestowed their blessing upon it. Perhaps the unlucky wight who fell 
into the hole was a wandering monk who blessed it fervidly then and 
there, and wished himself well out of it. When one considers how many 
simple folk have peered into the well and wished a wish to be "granted 
within a year," one is inclined to indulge them the harmless delusion 
and to own that the story of the monkish blessing may be as authentic 
as are those which go with the "large solid brass knocker, which adorned 
the door of the Ponce de Leon palace at Seville;" the praying bench 
"used by the Franciscan monks during their occupancy of this house;" 
the sundry antiques the method of manufacture of which tells the trained 
eye of the wood-worker that they were produced at dates later than 
those specified in their labels; and the "Masonic table presented to 
Washington by Lafayette." 




CHAPEL, SHOWING IN F^flEGROUND PHi& 



E MONKS (N THIS ROOM. 



28 



THE CONCLUSIONS FROM THE INQUIRY. 

I have given such historical facts with deductions and inferences 
drawn from them as bear on the question at issue. 
It has been found — 

That in 1565 there were no monks here; 
That the coquina building stone was unknown; 
And that St. Augustine occupied another site. 

The results of the inquiry lead to the conclusion that the Society's 
claim of great antiquity for its building is unfounded, untrue and 
untenable. 

St. Augustine has had an eventful and romantic history, but in that 
history the house tias had no recorded part. Nor do any traditions 
attach to it, not even of great age, for there are other houses here which 
are known to be older. The story that it was built in 1565 by the 
monks of St. Francis is a fiction. of recent invention, invented and told 
for revenue only. The tens of thousands of tourists who have paid 
their admission fees to see the "oldest house" have been hoaxed. The 
age of three and a half centuries ascribed to the house is a fraud. The 
taking of money from visitors under the false pretense of showing them 
"the oldest house in the United States" is a swindle 



29 



THE OTHER ST. AUGUSTINE. 

To say, as has been said, that the city's attraction for tourists de- 
pends in any degree on oldest house and kindred fakes, is an insult to 
St. Augustine. Untold thousands of visitors were attracted to the old 
town and found their pleasure here before ever the St. Francis street 
fakers faked their fakes. Other untold thousands will come long after 
the fakers shall have lived their little hour and been forgotten. 

For these vulgar and impudent deceptions, engendered of ignorance 
and cupidity, are not the real things that count in St. Augustine. No 
more do those who invent and exploit and abet and defend the frauds 
truly represent the city. 

The visitor may be "ground through" the St. Francis street house. 
Fort Marion and the Ponce de Leon mission, imbibe the parrot lectures 
and go away with a tiead stuffed full of misinformation about a fanciful 
St. Augustine and its past. But there is another St. Augustine of which 
he will have learned little or nothing — the place of genuine historic in- 
terest and truly romantic associations. When he realizes that he has 
been duped, he may look on the town as one given over to fakes. But, 
in this respect also, there is another St. Augustine (if not of to-day, 
nevertheless of yesterday and of to-morrow), a St. Augustine abhor- 
rent of deceptions and intolerant of those who practice them. 

The vendors of fakes, who have strayed in from other parts and set 
up shop here, do not represent the real personality of the community. 

A Historical Society, ignorant of the history of its own city, and 
giving out grotesque fabrications as historic truths, does not represent 
the intelligent many who are familiar with that history and disgusted by 
the Society's perversions of it. 

Intelligent residents know that the oldest houses, the fountains of 
youth and the Ponce de Leon missions are frauds. Self-respecting men 
and women resent the exploitation of the swindles and wouM gladly 
see the town rid of them. Such a feeling was expressed in letters which 
came to me from Dr. Anderson, Dr. Bigler, Mr. Dismukes, Mr. Cal- 
houn, Mr. Dewhurst, Archbishop Curley, then Bishop of St. Augustine, 
and others, following the publication of my article in Mr. Poster's 
Travel Magazine and the first edition of this booklet. Their sentiment 
represented an element of the community which is not represented truly 
nor at all by those members of the Board of Trade, themselves ignorant 
and gullible, who defend the fakes as business interests; nor is the 
intelligence of St. Augustine represented by the Evening Record when it 
supports the Historical Society's preposterous pretensions. 

The attitude of the individual depends largely upon the measure of 
one's self-respect, since a sensitive respect for one's self involves a respect 
for one's home town and requires that the town shall deserve the respect 

30 



of its own people and that of the outside world. No high-minded, right- 
thinking, self-respecting man or woman living here is willing to have 
St. Augustine known as a harborer of fakers and mecca of fakees, with 
oldest houses for the gullible and fountains of youth for the feeble- 
minded. When the city shall be freed from these disgusting frauds, as 
some day it will be, the cleansing will have been brought about by the 
assertion of that self-respect on the part of the many, which in such 
larger expression we speak of as civic pride. 

An obligation rests on all citizens to cherish the town's civic self- 
respect. It is an obligation which may be evaded least of all by busi- 
ness men to whom the city gives opportunity and reward ; a sorry return 
do any such make who abet the degrading frauds. A similar obliga- 
tion rests on those who not being citizens return with successive wmters 
to enjoy the advantages of living here; with very ill-grace indeed may 
any such repay St. Augustine's welcome by making flippant apologies 
for the fake mongerers or constituting themselves oratorical sponsors for 
the fakes which bring reproach on the city. 

The St. Augustine of this later time asks no more, and surely should be 
given no less, than the St. Augustine of 1586 received from its people, 
who, as Alonzo Santos Saez wrote, took a "special pride in cultivating 
and beautifying" the town. The beautifying which it should be the 
special pride of its people to bestow upon St. Augustine to-day con- 
sists not alone in that material and external beauty, which in such sur- 
passing measure it has; but in the beauty, as weM, of the qualities which 
characterize it as a community and determine its repute and the honor 
of its name, 

Charles B. Reynolds. 

130 West 42d Street, New York, December, 1921. 



31 



LlbKHKY Uh (;UNUKbibb 



The Facts vs. 




f] 014 541 322 9 



From the Armistice Da^ Address of Dr. Andrerv Anderson, 
St. Augustine, November //, J 92/. 

*'To my knowledge there never was a slave sold in it (the 
Plaza market). 

"In those days before the Civil War I never heard of the 
existence of a Ponce de Leon Spring, nor a Burning Spring, 
nor of an oldest house, nor of a slave market, nor of a Hugue- 
not Cemetery. . . The cemetery just outside the City Gates was 
deeded to the trustees of the Presbyterian Church, of whom 
my father was one, by the Rev. T. Alexander, in 1832, for the 
use of the Protestants of the City. 

"That I have some right to speak of these things, I may say 
that my father came here in 1829. He lived in an old Spanish 
house, which stood on the present site of the St. George Hotel. 
My mother drove through the City Gates in 1832 in the first 
four-wheeled vehicle ever seen here. They both lived and died 
and I was born here, and I now speak of some things of which 
I know. These springs and oldest houses and slave markets 
and Huguenot cemeteries are all new things. 

"It is known to me that one house may be older than an- 
other, but where there are no records, who shall say which is 
the oldest? Oldest houses are getting to be as thick as flies, 
and we are being made ridiculous in the eyes of intelligent 
people. We are becoming a laughing stock. Why not label 
every old house, 'This is an old house,* and let it go at that? 
The learned hack-drivers who go about the city, stuffing gull- 
ible tourists with absurd stories, are no credit to us. St. 
Augustine has a background and has a history and is dignified 
by it. Let us not diminish its dignity by making it a catch- 
penny town." 



32 



\ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 





014 541 322 9 



